The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

Avis Bohlen Award FOR A FOREIGN SERVICE FAMILY MEMBER Bonnie Miller D escribed as “an elemental and positive force of nature in the rocky Greek- American landscape,” Bonnie Miller has made a difference in the lives of countless women and children in Greece. She courageously moved obstacles thought immovable in the war against human trafficking, and brought a warm light of empathy to thousands of families in Greece struggling with their children’s learning disabilities. Her interweaving of the personal and political, whether in a classroom or on Greek national television, has advanced America’s interests in Greece in unexpected ways and beyond the normal channels of conventional diplomacy. Miller first became involved in efforts to end human traf- ficking in Bosnia, and continued this involvement in Greece. Her 30-plus years as a psychotherapist and her skills as an edu- cator, organizer and networker, have made her a truly effective advocate for victims of trafficking. Miller’s efforts helped build the public momentum that lead to the successful passage of a tough new law to prosecute human traffickers. Working onmany fronts, Miller’s influ- ence has been broad. As a psychotherapist who has worked with battered women, she has assisted non- governmental organi- zations in establishing programs to help res- cued women. As an organizer andmaster networker, she has forged productive links between NGO activists and Greek officials. As an educator, she has taught Greek college students about the problems of human traf- ficking. As a noted personality with a highmedia profile in Greece, and as the ambassador’s wife, she has brought wider attention to the human trafficking issue. A strong advocate for children with learning problems, Bonnie Miller is a founding member of the Greek Institute for the Study of Learning Disabilities and has mobilized educators and parents to actively seek to help children with learning dis- abilities. She wrote and produced a training video on learning disabilities that has been distributed to educators and interested parents through the Greek Ministry of Education and UNESCO. She has also authored books on parenting and edu- cational reform, which have been translated into both Bosnian and Greek and distributed to thousands of educators in both countries, as well as in neighboring countries. “All of our Foreign Service posts have been interesting in their own unique ways and offered much opportunity for growth,” says Miller. She was the runner-up for the Bohlen Award in 2001 and 2002 for her work in Bosnia. Bonnie is married to TomMiller, ambassador to Greece, and they have been part of the Foreign Service family for 27 years, serving in ChiangMai, Sarajevo, Athens andWashington, D.C. JULY-AUGUST 2003 • AFSA NEWS 7 AFSA’S 2003 EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE AWARD WINNERS M. Juanita Guess Award FOR A COMMUNITY LIAISON OFFICER Joy Bacik J oy Bacik could not be a better community liaison officer. Her indispensable support to the Embassy Jakarta community during the longest-lasting drawdown from Jakarta in five years serves as an illus- tration of the true and best meaning of the words “community liaison.” With little notice, Bacik was evacu- ated from Jakarta along with all other embassy family members and half of the embassy staff. During the five-month evacuation, Bacik stood watch over the community from the Family Liaison Office in the State Department. “Joy’s enthusiasmmotivates everyone with whom she comes in contact. I receive weekly testimonials from grateful evacuees and their family members still at post about the extent to which their ability to withstand the months of separation is due large- ly to Joy’s great efforts,” says Ambassador Ralph Boyce in Jakarta. In his nomination, the ambassador called Bacik “a superb com- municator, a staunch advocate, a creative planner, an enthusiastic organizer, a terrific motivator, and a tremendously effective CLO coordinator.” During months away frompost, Bacik served as the critical focal point inWashington for evacuees and for embassy staff still in Jakarta. She routinely telephoned and e-mailed evacuees wherever they were to check in, listen to their concerns and pass these concerns on to the right people. In this way, many problems were solved before they turned into crises. Bacik wrote weekly newsletters to the evacuee community to keep them informed and help them with administrative processes. She organized townmeetings and maintained a dialogue with department management and with the ambassador in Jakarta. Evacuations can be extremely stressful, especially when weeks and months go by without a clear indication of when community mem- bers might return to post. Bacik was always ready to listen to individ- ual concerns of evacuees and then to help themnavigate the some- times overwhelming bureaucracy and unfamiliar territory of the State Department. In April, the evacuation ended and Bacik returned to post to continue her impres- sive activities there. Her many other activities in Jakarta included facilitating a teen-produced video on life in Jakarta for the Overseas Briefing Center; setting up an innovative teen security program; lining up informative and entertaining lunchtime guest speakers; and developing a two-day orientation program for newcomers. Joy is married to Byron Bacik, the assistant regional security offi- cer at the embassy. She was born inMalaysia and came to the U.S. in 1989 to study music. She has a bachelor of music in piano perfor- mance fromPittsburg State University in Kansas and anMBA from the same university. She has worked as a senior consultant for Cap Gemini Ernst and Young in Chicago. She was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2001. Jakarta is her first Foreign Service posting. Joy Bacik on a visit to the island of Bali. Embassy Athens volunteers with kids from the Ark, an organization that provides food, cloth- ing, recreation, and education for refugee and homeless children.